Hyatt’s Global Marketing Head On How To Embrace Risk
Hyatt's Global Marketing Head On How To Embrace Risk
Maryam Banikarim, global CMO of HYATT Hotels, talks about taking chances, making your own rules, and why design matters.
Written by Doreen Lorenzo
Doreen Lorenzo: How did you arrive at your current position? Was it a straight shot into marketing, or was it a curvy road?
Maryam Banikarim: I took the curvy road. Growing up, I thought I wanted to be an investigative reporter or a photojournalist.
When I was in college, I wrote a column—an insider’s guide—for the college paper because I was fascinated by the idea of being a local. This was during the time Gap had a campaign called the "Individuals of Style," and they localized the campaign. I had this idea of doing a column about different cities intermingled with the Gap ads, basically a Gap Insider’s Guide.
Fast forward to when I was in graduate school: I ended up sending the mock-up to Mickey Drexler, who was president of the Gap at the time. To my surprise—at first I thought it was a joke!—he called, and we ended up meeting. In short, that’s what steered me into a career in advertising and marketing.
DL: What is the hardest lesson you've learned in your career?
MB: I’ve always been one of those people who is naturally curious and makes up her own rules.
While still a junior staffer at Young & Rubicam in the early 1990s, Michael Schrage, one of the world’s most provocative thought leaders, wrote a cover story for Wired titled "Is Advertising Dead?" which prompted me and a colleague to coordinate an agency-wide conference to discuss the topic.
One of my mentors pulled me aside and said, "What you’re doing is really political. You’re trying to take a stake in something, and you should really let this go." I remember being perplexed, and saying to her, "You know, I’m just doing this because I’m interested. I have no other agenda. And if this organization doesn’t respond well to that, I better find out now before I put in 20 years here."
Through that experience and others, I learned that if my approach didn’t fit a company’s style, I would be willing to move on. I had the power of my convictions and a high tolerance for risk.
Another lesson I learned came about through a business I launched. I used to have to carry a laptop around to do demos, and I had to put it in this ugly bag because those early laptop bags were so unattractive. I thought, "Seriously, there has to be a better way to carry around your laptop."
So I signed up for a bag-making class at FIT. In the process, I met a woman who’d been in the bag business, and we actually started working together. I left my job, and the two of us made functional bags fashionable. We made diaper bags, laptop bags, and pet carriers. We had a guy in the garment district manufacturing the bags for us.
The most popular bags were, by far, the diaper bags, because they didn’t look like diaper bags, and people would buy them from me—like, on the subway, they’d stop me! Even New York City Ballet dancers would buy them and use the bottle pockets for their ballet shoes. I didn't think I was a genius designer, like I was John Galliano. I just took something and made it slightly better. I was not afraid of taking the chance and saying, "Okay, we’re going to try bags now."
Read More at FastCodeDesign
